PC Advisor tops Nielsen UK tech traffic ratings

Nielsen rates PC Advisor as the 7th most popular magazine site

By Lexton Snol | 16 December 08

The latest Nielsen figures for online media UK audience growth show a wide spread of sectors, with only technology magazine sites being represented by two titles in the top 10. Of these two tech sites the highest year-on-year growth was achieved by PC Advisor, according to figures released today by Nielsen Online.

The ten most popular magazine websites come from nine different sectors. Only technology - represented by IDG's PC Advisor and Wired - has more than one representative. That makes PC Advisor the number-one most popular technology site for UK traffic, and seventh overall in all sectors.

Nielsen rates PC Advisor as the seventh most popular magazine site for UK visitors, up 59 percent on 2007. Wired rates as the number 10 site, up 50 percent on last year.

The top 10 most popular magazine sites for UK traffic:

Alex Burmaster, Communications Director at Nielsen Online, said: "Whereas the highest-circulation print magazines are dominated by retailer publications and TV listings, the most popular magazine sites cover an extremely wide array of sectors from auto sales, consumer reviews, food and TV to listings, science, technology, music and geography.

"Despite this diversity, there is consistency in that almost all the leading magazine sites have had a large increase in audience over the last year. As with the newspapers, this provides some great news for publishers in contrast to what's happening with print circulations. Furthermore, it shows how key a part online should play in the future strategies of print titles in terms of generating advertising revenue."

Nielsen Online research shows that in November 2008 5.5 million Britons visited at least one of the ten most popular magazine websites compared to 4.3 million across the group in November 2007, a growth of 30 percent. (The audience figures are for UK visitors only, accessing the sites from home or work locations only.)

Regarding the most popular newspaper websites for UK audience, Nielsen stated that in November 2008 10.3 million Britons visited at least one of the ten most popular newspaper websites compared to 8.3 million across the group in November 2007, a growth of 23 percent.

Despite having the lowest online year-on-year growth of the top UK newspapers, the Guardian remains the most popular online paper.

The New York Times is the only non-UK paper in the top ten, with 0.9 million British visitors, making it more popular online than UK nationals such as the Financial Times, News of the World and Daily Express; the Metro is the only regional paper in the list (0.6 million).

The top 10 most popular newspaper sites for UK traffic:

"Regardless of what's happening with print circulations, the major papers have had a fantastic year online, all experiencing strong growth in audience numbers. Almost one in three Britons online now visit at least one of the top 10 newspapers, 23 percent more people than did so a year ago. More importantly, it acts as a reminder of how important a part online will play in sustaining the size of audiences the newspapers deliver to advertisers,"?explained Burmaster.